Side guards and speed limits: Enhancing Somerville's street safety

Tuesday

Jan 17, 2017 at 12:47 PMJan 17, 2017 at 12:47 PM

By Katie Bowler / kbowler@wickedlocal.com

In Somerville, 7.4 percent of commuters ride their bikes to work, and by 2020, the Somerville Bicycle Committee hopes to up that to ten percent. In 2030, as set forth in SomerVision, the city aims to have 50 percent of all trips be completed by public transit, biking or walking.

But while Somerville has received national attention for being cyclist and pedestrian-friendly, many residents feel as though the city isn’t taking necessary precautions to enhance street safety.

In 2014, Boston passed the nation’s first truck side guard ordinance, mandating all vehicles weighing more than 10,000 pounds must have side guards, convex mirrors, cross-over mirrors, and blind-spot awareness decals.

The guards are designed to protect cyclists and pedestrians from falling underneath the front of a truck during a collision.

Ward 6 Alderman Lance Davis requested Thursday an ordinance to install truck side guards on city-owned vehicles, similar to that of Boston.

“The objective is to increase safety in incidents or collisions between bicyclists, pedestrians, and other vulnerable road users,” said Davis.

Volpe engineer Alex Epstein studied the potential safety benefits of truck side guards in the United Kingdom, who installed the guards on the majority of large vehicles in 1986. Since then, Epstein explained in a presentation in 2015, the U.K. has seen a 61 percent decrease in bicyclist fatalities and a 20 percent decrease in pedestrian fatalities.

Since implementing the ordinance in Boston, said Epstein, at least one life has been saved. Because the truck side guards are new to Boston, he explained, data is limited.

“Large vehicles are the most deadly of collisions,” said Epstein. “One person’s life was saved in July 2014 ... but it will take some time [to gather more data].”

Davis said the ordinance will be referred to the committee on legislative matters, but probably won’t be on the agenda for the next meeting since it was just submitted.

“I want to see [the ordinance] in place as soon as we can,” he said. “I wanted to push the issue, which is why I worked with Mr. Epstein and others to actually submit a drafted ordinance.”

Safety Zones

In November, the City of Somerville implemented city-wide speed limits of up to 25 miles per hour, with the exception of Route 16 and McGrath Highway.The amended legislation, put into effect in July, gives municipalities the power to designate safety zones.

Ward 5 Alderman Mark Niedergang hopes the city will further reduce the speed limit to 20 miles per hour in designated safety zones in order to protect both cyclists and pedestrians.

“Safety zone speed limits have been in consideration since the legislature passed the bill in July that allowed cities and towns to reduce the speed limit to 25 miles per hour,” explained Niedergang. “In the same legislation, they allowed cities and towns to designate safety zones and make those 20 miles per hour.”

Because Somerville is so small and densely populated, said Niedergang, he expects the majority of city streets would have these reduced limits.

“The difference between 20 and 25 miles per hour in terms of someone being hit by a car is tremendous,” he said. “A third or half of the streets in the city could be designated as safety zones.”

Since the summer, said Niedergang, he’s filed two or three board orders asking the city why these limits aren’t being enforced.

Safety zones would potentially include the areas of schools, elderly homes, playgrounds, and any other area where crossing the street would be a major concern, said Niedergang.

“I don’t understand where the city is in implementing [the safety zones] and what’s holding it up and what’s the plan and what’s the timeline,” he said. “I haven’t gotten the answers.”

The “dutch reach”

When drivers get out of their car, most use their left hand to open the door, Niedergang said, but they should be using their right.

Using the “dutch reach,” he explained, drivers use their right hand to open to door, forcing them to look out their side and back windows. Ideally this method helps people notice approaching, and possibly unaware cyclists, preventing serious injury.

“I don’t think it’s going to be easy, we all have habits but the more information ... people can put out there for members of the public, we may save some lives,” he said.

In June, 27-year-old Amanda Phillips was killed after colliding with a car door and landing in the way of traffic in Cambridge.

According to the Cambridge Community Development Department, an estimated 20 percent of bicycle-motor vehicle crashes result from driver’s opening their door and hitting cyclists.

Though Niedergang is thankful no one is Somerville has been fatally injured, he hopes the city takes the precautions necessary in preventing future accidents.

Starting a dutch reach campaign, said Niedergang, would cost little to nothing, and would potentially save lives.

“We’ve been trying to get [the city] to do this kind of campaign of bike safety issues for years,” he said. “There have been some efforts but, in my opinion, they’ve been tremendously inadequate and clearly are not a top priority.”

Over the summer, the Somerville Police Department placed an electronic sign outside of a hockey rink, asking drivers to use their right hand when opening the door. Though Niedergang was happy to see that, he wants to push the method further.